Travelling across northern India in the 1830s, Emily Eden (1797-1869) made a number of portraits of eminent people, and also of their attendants. Her work gives a unique insight into Punjab, especially at the close of the golden era of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s reign and at the start of Queen Victoria’s.
Members of the Eden family played prominent roles in British society and politics for nearly 200 years. Anthony Eden was the Conservative Prime Minister in the 1950s. But it began with his ancestor William Eden, a Whig aristocrat and MP in the 1770s.
Among William’s many children, George Eden (Lord Auckland) was Governor-General in India from 1836-42. One of the sharpest minds in the family was his younger sister Emily, an artist, poet and novelist. Being unmarried, she elected to accompany her bachelor brother to India, to act as his hostess. So, too, did their youngest sibling Frances (known as Fanny).
Both Emily and Fanny accompanied George on his travels, including on his expedition from Calcutta to Lahore, to visit the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1838.
Along the way, Emily drew portraits of people she met. Her subjects included Afghan and Sikh nobles; Akalis and hill people; fakirs, domestic servants and hunting attendants — anyone who caught her eye, whether young or old.
On the Edens’ return to England, over two dozen of her sketches were engraved as lithographs, published as ‘Portraits of the Princes and People of India’ in 1844.
Curated by art historian and author Mary Ann Prior, the exhibition by DAG in New Delhi — ‘Princes & People of India: Portraits by Emily Eden’ — brings together, for the first time in India, the complete published series of Emily Eden’s celebrated book, the recently acquired Eden Family Archives, and a rare corpus of Lahore Company School paintings.
Ashish Anand, CEO and MD of DAG, says the exhibition includes notebooks and other materials from the Eden family archive, recently acquired by DAG. Also displayed are other works that relate to the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and to the Punjab of his time, including a remarkable set of Company paintings made in Lahore around 1850.
The exhibition opens on July 10.
HERE ARE SOME LITHOGRAPHS FROM HER TRAVELS ACROSS PUNJAB:
‘The Rajah of Putteealla, on his State Elephant’
Emily Eden
Lithograph tinted with watercolour on paper pasted on paper, 1844
This is a portrait of Maharaja Karam Singh, the fourth ruler of the Patiala state. A member of the prominent Sikh Phulkian dynasty, Karam Singh hosted the Edens in his territory during their travels up the country. Emily had her first encounter with the Raja of Patiala on 15 January, 1839, after meeting his much beloved son and successor, Narinder Singh, the day before. She sketched her first meeting with the Raja whilst he rode on an elephant.
‘Akalees’
Emily Eden
Lithograph tinted with watercolour on paper pasted on paper, 1844
Emily Eden first stumbled upon the Sikh irregular armies, the Akalees or Akali-Nihangs, during her visit to Lahore. From a letter dated 26 December, 1838, she described the men as an ‘alarming class of people’ who even Maharaja Ranjit Singh was unable to tame and handle. Though she found them loud and abusive, Emily was captivated by their clothing, weaponry, and other paraphernalia. This lithograph captures the intricacies of their long, loose electric-blue dress, called the neela bana, and their distinct conical turbans, the dustaar bunga. She also captured the Akalees with muskets, swords and circular throwing weapons, the chakrams or quoits, worn around their turbans, arms and necks.
‘A Young Hill Raja’
Emily Eden
Lithograph tinted with watercolour on paper pasted on paper, 1844
The Ranas of the Western Himalayas were the petty rulers of small territories in modern-day Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Jammu & Kashmir. The Eden siblings encountered many of these hill rulers on their journey through northern India. In this portrait, Emily draws a young Rana from one of the hill states, wearing a white choga, a long, loose robe worn over a jama or upper garment, and dark red pyjamas. She depicts him as an authoritative figure, despite his young age, positioning him with a sword and an arrow across his lap and a strong, confident gaze.
‘Runjeet Singh’
Emily Eden
Lithograph tinted with watercolour on paper pasted on paper, 1844
On 30 November, 1838, Emily Eden described her first encounter with Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh Empire, as the ‘day of the great meeting’. Though she met him as a rather frail and brittle man at the end of his life, she saw him as an inquisitive, revered and authoritative leader.
Emily writes about drawing this portrait of Ranjit Singh in a letter from 23 December, 1838, while in Lahore. Under strict instructions from the Maharaja that no one disturb her, she sketched the ‘Lion of Punjab’ in a simple red silk robe, paired with an unadorned turban, and donning no jewels. His attire was in sharp contrast to the opulence of the Lahore court, but also reminiscent of her first meeting with him.
Drawn in the British style, the portrait shows Ranjit Singh sitting in an armchair, in the corner of a room, looking towards the gardens, with his blind eye visible. Her sketch captures not only his quiet contemplation, but also his well-regarded modesty.
